THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority said a number of foreign manufacturing companies are looking for bigger areas of land for their operations this year, indicating the magnitude of investments they want to bring into the country.

“This year, they want to reserve 80, 100, to 200 hectares. By this, we see that the caliber of investors this year are really big,” Peza director-general Lilia de Lima said. She said in a program over PTV-4 that manufacturing companies in previous years reserved between two and five hectares.

De Lima said most of the potential investors are in the electronics sector.

“I always told them that this government is transparent and with strong campaign against corruption,” she said. She said firms choose locations where they could avoid unnecessary operational costs.

She cited the expansion of Japan’s Murata in Laguna, one of the biggest investments in the Philippines last year. “Murata came in with P3-billion investments and they looked for 22 hectares,” she said.

De Lima said she expects the Japanese to be the leading investors this year just like in 2011.